Yes, all three of them were speakers apparently at this conference three weeks ago Don't even remember seeing anything on the news either even tho Angela Merkel was there too. Please don't worry about it Nicki

Yulia Tymoshenko speaking at the EPP conference in Dublin on Thursday night

By Vincent Boland in Dublin

There is something about being a European centre-right politician that appears to attract its own kind of celebrity. The gathering of the European People’s party in Dublin is a good example of this rather eclectic mix of high-profile luminaries.

On Thursday evening, it was the turn of the Ukrainians to wow the audience. Vitali Klitschko, the former boxing champion and front-runner to be Ukraine’s president in a post-revolution election in May, and Yulia Tymoshenko, the former prime minister and prison inmate, both got standing ovations as they arrived on stage to address the congress.

Mr Klitschko laid out five urgent requirements for Ukraine: joining the EU; immediate negotiations with Nato; economic reform; guarantees of freedom of the press and human rights; and a transparent presidential election on May 25.

With Ukraine dominating the proceedings in Dublin, Ms Tymoshenko caught the mood well when she said: “The European Union is not ideal, but it was not expanded at the point of a Kalashnikov as Russia is doing now.”

That brought the house down. If there are Russian observers at the congress, they will have no trouble diagnosing the fierce anti-Russian mood among the speakers and delegates.

The celebrity speaker on Friday was Bono, lead singer of venerable Irish rockers U2, who gave away Irish prime minister Enda Kenny’s best-kept secret: that the Taoiseach prefers Bruce Springsteen to U2. That explains everything, surely.

For a gathering of normally pro-business centre-right politicians, Bono struck a rather anti-capitalistic tone, however. “The lack of transparency in the international financial system keeps the very poor poor and the corrupt rich,” the U2 frontman said.

His remarks railing against far-right nationalism, however, was more in keeping with a mainstream party worried about its base voting for anti-EU populists in May’s European parliament elections.

“Extreme nationalism is not choosy; it is an equal-opportunity hater. Its real victim is Europe and the idea of Europe,” Bono said. “Europe cannot just be the legal alternative to extreme nationalism; it must become the passionate alternative.”

Tags: European Parliament elections, European People's Party Posted in EU | Permalink

mmhh I don't think George was there. I think this would have been too much media attention now with Amal being outed as the new girlfriend. And I think it would have been hard for him to stay there under the radar with so much press there.